Etihad Airways’ Al Ain Contact Centre received the award for “Best Facilities” at the INSIGHTS Middle East Call Centre Awards, held June 4, 2013, in Dubai. This is the second consecutive year the contact centre has received the honour.

Peter Baumgartner, the airline’s Chief Commercial Officer, said: “Once again, our Al Ain Contact Centre has proven to be an exceptional facility and we are extremely proud of this team’s accomplishments. As a result of a comprehensive performance management framework and a dynamic training strategy, the contact centre continues to meet and exceed its targets and service levels, proving once again the remarkable talent of our Emirati workforce.”

Etihad Airways’ Al Ain Contact Centre was established as part of the airline’s Emiratisation Program. Recognising the need to create job opportunities for the women of Al Ain, the airline elected to open a contact centre there, creating an environment where national women could develop their careers while sustaining a balance between home and work. The centre officially opened in March 2011, with a mission “to deliver a consolidated multi-lingual contact centre that maximises every revenue opportunity while delivering inspirational experiences with warmth and respect.” Today, the centre is fully staffed by 200 Emirati women, including four quality management executives, 13 team leaders and two performance managers.

“Having national employees at strategic customer touch points across the organisation is one of the best ways for Etihad Airways to present its unique brand proposition to the world,” Mr Baumgartner said. “We remain committed to supporting and developing Emirati talent in our contact centres and across every department and division of the airline.”

The Al Ain Contact Centre is open 12 hours a day, seven days a week, handling over 800,000 calls per year in state-of-the-art purpose built premises on the campus of Abu Dhabi University.

Etihad Airways has three other contact centres located in Abu Dhabi, Mumbai and Manchester. In 2012, the four contact centres handled approximately 2.6 million calls, assisting guests in 36 markets, serving 15 languages.

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